After a few hours of work today, I ran down to meet Clara and Emma for a spin class! We went to Clara’s gym, since she had some free guest passes for us to use. The class was very upbeat, hot, and sweaty, and I am still trying to rehydrate! (You know you’re dehydrated when you get thirsty every 20 minutes).

Thanks to my sweat-soaked shirt, my body felt as though it had had a good workout, however my mind was still uneasy. The instructor didn’t tell us how long our intervals would be, how many we would have, or provide us with any time cues whatsoever. Furthermore, she didn’t give us any rates of perceived exertion (RPE) to suggest how hard we should be working. The word “sprint” soon became quite an arbitrary term, and I found myself distrusting the instructor.

I don’t want to rant and say negative things, because ultimately I managed to push through and get a workout, but I really can’t emphasize enough the importance of a good instructor! An instructor who knows what they’re doing, is positive, and engaging really does make all the difference.

Dinner

Dinner tonight was inspired by a salad I had last summer back home in Victoria.

I cooked some quinoa (1/4 cup dry), steamed some frozen kale, and chopped some red pepper, red onion, and avocado. I then topped it all with goat cheese and smoked salmon, and finally dressed my salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

A little tip if you want to make this at home for yourself: Unless you like the taste of warm balsamic vinegar, I suggest letting the quinoa and kale cool. Luckily, this didn’t take long (I also had some baby carrots while waiting for a whole 5 minutes), and my meal was much more refreshing this way.

This salad was super easy to make, and I will probably be making it a lot more in the near future, perhaps with chicken in place of smoked salmon. (As much as I love smoked salmon, it’s not exactly the cheapest option at the store, so I’m going to have to wait until I’m back home for some more of that 🙂 )

Ever since my delicious lunch at Westville in NYC on Sunday, I can’t get smoked salmon out of my mind. So, when I saw my favourite fish on sale at a decent price today, I had to go for it!

When I got home from squash today, I knew I wanted something cold for dinner. There was no way I was about to heat up the apartment by cooking a hot meal, while I’m trying to cool it down with AC! My first thought was to make a smoothie, but since I am still blender-less, that was a no go. Next best thing? A salad!

On my grocery expedition today, I also picked up my new green leafy vegetable for the week, arugula! (Last week’s was kale, and towards the end I was getting a little kale-d out).

This salad was super quick and simple, and tasted pretty similar to something you could get at off the appetizer menu at a restaurant! (Where do you think I got the idea? 😉 )

Smoked Salmon, Goat Cheese and Arugula Salad

Serves 1

Ingredients:

3 handfuls arugula (aka rocket), washed

3 oz smoked salmon

1/4 crumbled goat cheese

1/3 avocado, cut into slices

1/2 cup cucumber, chopped into quarters

3 tsp olive oil

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp red wine vinegar

Directions:

Combine olive oil, lemon juice and red wine vinegar in a small bowl and mix well.

In a medium salad bowl, pour salad dressing over arugula and use your hands to mix until it is evenly coated.

Top with avocado, smoked salmon, cucumber and goat cheese.

Serve immediately and enjoy!

Thanks to the avocado and salmon, this ended up being a pretty substantial salad full of Omega-3’s! I’ve also got a recipe for a quiche in mind, which uses these 3 main ingredients. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of the smoked salmon and goat cheese combo!